Browsed byMonth: January 2014

salon published an article telling the world that we need to quit with the “year of” stunts. people write books or blog about how they’re spending their year being an atheist, or living the biblical law, or being vegetarian, or cooking all of julia child’s recipes. much of the article is focused on the goal-orientation and on-off switch of the year-long stunt.
i have only one beef with these sort of experiments myself: after the year is up, it’s bye bye blog! that’s why my blog covers many varied topics, all of which, coincidentally, have to do with me. my posts are about writing, photography, eating, running, campaigns against devil’s syrup, etc…and when those things run out, i will blog about something else i’m doing.
so my 10-year blogging anniversary is quite the accomplishment, if you look at other abandoned blogs.
and ironically, i’m doing a year of blogging to celebrate. unironically, i plan to continue my blog after my year of blogging ends, because, well, this is getting way too meta to think about, so i’ll leave it at that.
i’ll admit, blogging every day for a year is going to have its challenges, but ultimately i’m not going to quit writing or get bored with it.
so, salon, you can suck it. this is one “year of” stunt that is celebrating something i’ve already been doing and will continue doing afterward, just in smaller doses. (plus, i might continue on with the daily blogging – one never knows!)

if i had my druthers, i’d live here (as long as it had wifi!)
i am a big introvert. it’s not so bad that i can’t function in public, because i CAN function in public, and i function quite well if i know you well. if i know you well, it’s less of a chore for me to be around you (chore as in it takes a lot of energy). if i know you really well, i can easily be around you with no energy drain.
while cursed with this lovely introvertiveness, i am also cursed with the ability to be a somewhat presentable and effective presenter. it’s kind of like math – i am GOOD at it, and i can DO it, but i sure as heck don’t enjoy it. (ok, well, i don’t hate getting up in front of people as much as math, but you get the idea).
when the opportunity arose to say something at a MnSCU social media roundtable, i knew this was a good opportunity, and i wouldn’t mind sharing what i know. plus it would be a great thing to put on anyone’s resume! (NOT that i’m using it lately, but you never know what might happen!) so i volunteered to say something.
today was the big day, and while i wasn’t as nervous as i was in front of rctc’s administrators or the audience of 100+ on staff development day, it was still something that made my nerves wrack and my senses heighten to levels unacceptable to the little person inside of me who just wants to curl up on my couch with a book.
so now i’m wiped out, and after lying on the couch for an hour and a half, i am going to live-tweet the basketball game tonight (in lieu of “arrow” – waaahhhhhh), so i’ll be good to just pass out after that’s over.
you lucky people who get your energy from being around people don’t know how good you’ve got it.

i’m going to try to keep this vague as to not call anyone out at my place of employment.*
my job is to help get people more interested in many aspects of rctc and reach out through social media, but i can’t do my job if others don’t want to have anything to do with it.
i had a perfect opportunity to create a conversation with another mnscu school – and isn’t that what social media is about? reaching across the interwebs and creating conversation?
but when it came down to it, the counterpart on rctc’s end doesn’t think this is a good way to spend time – or resources is my guess. if it were up to this person, my guess is i wouldn’t be working there and all our social accounts would be abolished.
unfortunately, after the other school reached out, i couldn’t reach back and grab halfway. instead, i left the other half hanging, waiting for that high five.
*sigh* i kind of want to go all tom cruise and say HELP ME HELP YOU!!! and also a short reminder that fun is a core value. 🙁
*…and as in keeping with the social media policy that I WROTE, i will say that the opinion of this piece is my own and is not of rctc’s.**
**who knows – i may just delete this post after a little bit.

mmmmmmaaaaahhhhh *homer drool*
once again, easter is rolling its way around, and with easter comes the plethora of awesome easter candy. which is loaded with devil’s syrup.
last year i did some preliminary work on finding some cadbury mini eggs without DS, and only found some sketchy outfits on amazon that sold a bag for $20. this year i’ll do some more scrounging and see what i come up with. if i do buy some mini eggs from a company abroad, i think i’ll get a creme egg at the same time – i have a feeling those would be miraculous made with sugar instead of DS.
so i leave with this: HERSHEY WHY YOU GOTTA USE CORN SYRUP IN EVERYTHING!!
ok. i’m out.

my hair has been really dry lately, which i attributed to my getting old and grey.
i decided to try out a couple things i found on pinterest for helping hair, here and here.
the first one is a mix of olive oil, honey, and apple cider vinegar. work into hair and let rest for 30-60 mins. the second is just coconut oil rubbed into hair.
omg – the difference is insane! i suppose all the sweat from running didn’t help, along with more hair washing because of the sweat. the gal who wrote the coconut oil post recommends doing it once a week, so i might try to at least do it once a month and see if it makes a more considerable difference in my hair.
(i also got some decent shampoo and conditioner, which should help as well.)
PS – NO WORK TOMORROW! i cannot buy advertising for FB and twitter that gets the sort of response and new followers that announcing a closure does. INSANE!

i got an anonymous* request for some of my current running tips and routine.
i’ve written a couple posts with running tips, so i’ll link and summarize:
1. runrunrunrun – 5 top tips from kate for running.

my c25k experience. how long it took, how much it sucked, what ailments i endured, etc.

my current routine? treadmill. ugh. treadmills suck. that said, i try to run at least 40 mins once a week and half an hour another two times a week, always in the evening. (and it sucks. i’ve really been not doing so well.) i still run between a 12-13 minute mile.

now that i have my fitbit, i’ve been trying to walk the days i don’t run so i can get 10,000 steps a day in. the walking is actually helping a little bit since it stretches out my longer leg muscles. while i run, i either listen to my running music playlist or an audiobook. when i walk, i bring down the laptop and watch TV shows on netflix/amazon.

another couple months and i’ll start running outside again. when i run outside, i tend to run a little more often, 4 times a week or more, and i’ll run 4+ miles at least once a week. this summer i think i’ll try to run more distance.

my brand new house has a ton of phone jacks all over. i have no use for them. you know what i do have a use for? ethernet cat5 jacks all over. you would think that builders would get a clue and start wiring houses for internet as well as cable and phone.really; how hard is this???
that said, my netflix/amazon prime streaming quality has been so bad lately, that last night i got finally got fed up with it. because of the no ethernet jacks, i’d been running the ps3 wirelessly, which apparently decreases signal strength when it has to run through two walls. i ran a 50-foot cat5 out and hooked it up.
aahhhhh *clouds part, sun shines*
now i have an unsightly cord running from the office to the far side of the living room, right where i can trip over it. when nate and i finish off the basement, cat5 jacks are definitely going in.

i tried my hand at making cream of mushroom soup last weekend. i have a fantastic potato soup recipe, and so i decided to see what i could find for mushroom soup. i followed this recipe fairly closely.

i used some white mushrooms, baby bellas, and a package of dried wild mushrooms i had leftover from thanksgiving. i also added some parsley.
whilit was yummy, it’s not quite to the caliber that my awesome potato soup recipe is at. i might have to do some more digging and see if i can find any other recipes that are awesome.